At Home: A Short History of Private Life

Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in a part of England where nothing of any great significance has happened since the Romans decamped. Yet one day, he began to consider how very little he knew about the ordinary things of life as he found it in that comfortable home. To remedy this, he formed the idea of journeying about his house from room to room to “write a history of the world without leaving home.”

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

One hundred thousand years ago, at least six human species inhabited the Earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens. How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations, and human rights; to trust money, books, and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables, and consumerism?

A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present

A classic since its original landmark publication in 1980, Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States is the first scholarly work to tell America's story from the bottom up - from the point of view of, and in the words of, America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers.

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies

Having done field work in New Guinea for more than 30 years, Jared Diamond presents the geographical and ecological factors that have shaped the modern world. From the viewpoint of an evolutionary biologist, he highlights the broadest movements both literal and conceptual on every continent since the Ice Age, and examines societal advances such as writing, religion, government, and technology.

In a Sunburned Country

Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. His previous excursion on the Appalachian Trail resulted in the best seller A Walk in the Woods. Now, we follow him "Down Under" to Australia with this delectably funny, fact-filled, and adventurous performance that combines humor, wonder, and unflagging curiosity. More from Bill Bryson.

Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions

All our lives are constrained by limited space and time, limits that give rise to a particular set of problems. What should we do, or leave undone, in a day or a lifetime? How much messiness should we accept? What balance of new activities and familiar favorites is the most fulfilling? These may seem like uniquely human quandaries, but they are not: computers, too, face the same constraints, so computer scientists have been grappling with their version of such problems for decades.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

For decades we've been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "F*ck positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let's be honest, shit is f*cked, and we have to live with it." In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn't sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is - a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is his antidote to the coddling, let's-all-feel-good mind-set that has infected modern society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.

The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves

An extraordinarybook for anyone eager to understand the hidden motives that shape our lives. We are all storytellers—we create stories to make sense ofour lives. But it is not enough to tell tales; there must be someone to listen. In his work as a practicing psychoanalyst, Stephen Grosz hasspent the last twenty-five years uncovering the hidden feelings behind our mostbaffling behavior. The Examined Life distills more than fifty thousandhours of conversation into pure psychological insight without the jargon.

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America - majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes. If you’re going to take a hike, it’s probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaing guide you’ll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhardy) folks he meets along the way - and a couple of bears. Already a classic, A Walk in the Woods will make you long for the great outdoors (or at least a comfortable chair to sit and read in).

How to Fight Presidents: Defending Yourself Against the Badasses Who Ran This Country

As a prisoner of war, Andrew Jackson walked several miles barefoot across state lines while suffering from smallpox and a serious head wound received when he refused to polish the boots of the soldiers who had taken him captive. He was thirteen years old. A few decades later, he became the first popularly elected president and served the nation, pausing briefly only to beat a would-be assassin with a cane to within an inch of his life.

An Economic History of the World since 1400

Most of us have a limited understanding of the powerful role economics has played in shaping human civilization. This makes economic history - the study of how civilizations structured their environments to provide food, shelter, and material goods - a vital lens through which to think about how we arrived at our present, globalized moment. Designed to fill a long-empty gap in how we think about modern history, these 48 lectures are a comprehensive journey through more than 600 years of economic history.

The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome

This is the first volume in a bold new series that tells the stories of all peoples, connecting historical events from Europe to the Middle East to the far coast of China, while still giving weight to the characteristics of each country. Susan Wise Bauer provides both sweeping scope and vivid attention to the individual lives that give flesh to abstract assertions about human history. This narrative history employs the methods of "history from beneath" - literature, epic traditions, private letters, and accounts - to connect kings and leaders with the lives of those they ruled.

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe's iconic webcomic. His stick-figure drawings about science, technology, language, and love have a large and passionate following. Fans of xkcd ask Munroe a lot of strange questions. What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent of the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there were a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last?

The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself

Already internationally acclaimed for his elegant, lucid writing on the most challenging notions in modern physics, Sean Carroll is emerging as one of the greatest humanist thinkers of his generation as he brings his extraordinary intellect to bear not only on the Higgs boson and extra dimensions but now also on our deepest personal questions. Where are we? Who are we? Are our emotions, our beliefs, and our hopes and dreams ultimately meaningless out there in the void?

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. Habits aren’t destiny. As Charles Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Fifteen-year-old Christopher Boone has Asperger's Syndrome, a condition similar to autism. He doesn't like to be touched or meet new people, he cannot make small talk, and he hates the colors brown and yellow. He is a math whiz with a very logical brain who loves solving puzzles that have definite answers.

A Brief History of Time

This landmark book is for those of us who prefer words to equations; this is the story of the ultimate quest for knowledge, the ongoing search for the secrets at the heart of time and space. Its author, Stephen W. Hawking, is arguably the greatest mind since Einstein. From the vantage point of the wheelchair, where he has spent the last 20 years trapped by Lou Gehrig's disease, Professor Hawking has transformed our view of the universe. A Brief History of Time is Hawking's classic introduction to today's most important scientific ideas.

Landmarks

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Landmarks, a fascinating exploration of the relationship between language and landscapes by Robert Macfarlane, read by Roy McMillan. Words are grained into our landscapes, and landscapes are grained into our words. Landmarks is about the power of language to shape our sense of place.

The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, The Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World

The Clockwork Universe is the story of a band of men who lived in a world of dirt and disease but pictured a universe that ran like a perfect machine. A meld of history and science, this book is a group portrait of some of the greatest minds who ever lived as they wrestled with natures most sweeping mysteries. The answers they uncovered still hold the key to how we understand the world.

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

In the spirit of Steve Jobs and Moneyball, Elon Musk is both an illuminating and authorized look at the extraordinary life of one of Silicon Valley's most exciting, unpredictable, and ambitious entrepreneurs - a real-life Tony Stark - and a fascinating exploration of the renewal of American invention and its new makers.

A dazzling tour of the universe as Einstein saw it. How did Albert Einstein come up with the theories that changed the way we look at the world? By thinking in pictures. Michio Kaku, leading theoretical physicist (a cofounder of string theory) and best-selling science storyteller, shows how Einstein used seemingly simple images to lead a revolution in science. With originality and expertise, Kaku uncovers the surprising beauty that lies at the heart of Einstein's cosmos

The Selfish Gene

Richard Dawkins' brilliant reformulation of the theory of natural selection has the rare distinction of having provoked as much excitement and interest outside the scientific community as within it. His theories have helped change the whole nature of the study of social biology, and have forced thousands to rethink their beliefs about life.

Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation

Sparked by a provocative comment to BigThink.com last fall, and fueled by a highly controversial debate with Creation Museum curator Ken Ham, Bill Nye's campaign to confront the scientific shortcoming of creationism has exploded in just a few months into a national crusade.

One Summer: America, 1927

One of the most admired nonfiction writers of our time retells the story of one truly fabulous year in the life of his native country - a fascinating and gripping narrative featuring such outsized American heroes as Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, and yes Herbert Hoover, and a gallery of criminals (Al Capone), eccentrics (Shipwreck Kelly), and close-mouthed politicians (Calvin Coolidge). It was the year Americans attempted and accomplished outsized things and came of age in a big, brawling manner. What a country. What a summer. And what a writer to bring it all so vividly alive.

Audible Editor Reviews

Why we think it's Essential: An ambitious title to say the least. But Bryson, arguably the best author-narrator around, gives us all an entertaining history lesson delivered in that voice-of-an-old-friend that has made all Bryson's work so enjoyable. This is no travelogue, as we are used to from Bryson, but it is more about life than any other "history" you'll hear. Chris Doheny

Publisher's Summary

In A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson takes his ultimate journey - into the most intriguing and consequential questions that science seeks to answer. It's a dazzling quest, as this insatiably curious writer attempts to understand everything that has transpired from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization.

To that end, Bill Bryson apprenticed himself to a host of the world's most profound scientific minds, living and dead. His challenge is to take subjects like geology, chemistry, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people, like himself, made bored (or scared) stiff of science by school.

On his travels through space and time, Bill Bryson encounters a splendid gallery of the most fascinating personalities ever to ask a hard question. In their company, he undertakes a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge. Science has never been more involving, and the world we inhabit has never been more full of wonder and delight.

I admit I am a big Bryson fan, but this is his best book yet. I'll let others speak to content, but I wanted to urge parents to share this book with their kids. I read the unabridged hard copy, then downloaded the abridged version so I could share it with my daughters - ages 10, 16, and 18. We listened on a long road trip through Montana. If you can believe it, they all cried when it was over, touched by Bryson's poignant message at the end about our place in the universe and the attendant responsibility of being at the (current) pinnacle of evolution. When we got home, my two older daughters immediately went to the bookstore to purchase their own copies so they could read the entire book again. It's gotta be good when your teenagers can't put it down. And it has generated great family conversation about a wide variety of topics ever since. Listen to this book. It will make you a more interesting and interested person . . . .

As I listened to this book, I had the feeling that it was missing a lot of details, explanations, and Brysonisms though it was nonetheless enjoyable. At the very end, I realized that this is an abridged version due the the crediting of an abridgement editor (I hadn't noticed that the abridgement notice on audible). The audio recording is only about half the book. No wonder it seemed sketchy. From what I've read of the book, it seems much better. I hope that Bill or Random House will put out a recording of the whole book.

What more can you ask for? From atoms to cosmology, we learn not only of why people think what they do, but also some of the characters who initially thought that way. I had no idea that Issac Newton was such an oddball; it certainly lets you know that nerds are not a new phenomena.

In short, simply fabulous. If this book in anyway piques your interest, then you definitely should select it. Never have I enjoyed a book on such weighty matters - it is concise, informative, thought provoking, while at all times witty!

As a scientist, I often find books designed for the nonscientist to be oversimplified or simply wrong. This book is rigorously accurate while presenting the material with a clarity and precision that keeps you both interested and informed. I give this audio book the highest rating as the most enjoyable I have listened to of the past 30 audio books I have enjoyed.

The author is also the narrator, and he is excellent. He makes the subjects of particle physics, anthropology and geology exciting and he presents the material with a mixture of timeline and relevance that brings everything together. Only at the very end does he present his opinions about all this, and they are worth listening to, but regardless of your views, you will enjoy the book.

First off, the narrator is perfect. *Perfect.* Just an outstanding voice, perfect pitch and inflection, and delivers the many wry, humorous lines with the dry tone only the English can truly manage.

Second, the book itself is fascinating. Even for people who don't like science, Bryson has written a beautiful guide that is interesting as much for the human characters as for the science itself. And the facts are presented so well, with so many good comparisons and easy-to-grasp metaphors that you'll find yourself interested, even if you think you hate science.

And last, this may be the perfect book for dropping off to sleep with. Bryson's transitions from topic to topic are clever and smooth, but it's not plot-driven; the book can really be listened to from any point, for any length of time. Missed 20 minutes because you fell asleep before your iPod sleep timer shut off? No big deal, you won't miss it. Catch it the next time around.

And you will listen to this book again. It's interesting enough and humorous enough that the parts you remember are worth hearing again, and there will be delightful surprises and laughs in those chunks you missed.

Between the library and the internet I listen to two to three books a week, and this has remained my number one recommendation since I heard it almost a year ago. Imagine, an explanation of the smallest known (or theorized) particles in the universe to the expanse of the universe itself. But most of all Bill Bryson makes it fun. If you enjoy knowing a little about everything but not too much about anything, if you're trivia fanatic, if you simply enjoy learning, this is a must. Perhaps the best compliment I can offer is the fact as soon as I finished "A Short History" I immediately began to search for other works by this author (and they're all good too).

Superb and clear, an eminantly readable history of man's developing scientific grasp of nearly every aspect of the collected knowledge of every decipline in the current critical areas of physical science.
It is both a linear history of mans discoveries, genious leaps, and inovations,as well as a concise explanation of the salient details of these discoveries.
It also renders a fine discussion of the varied aspects of our current understand and misunderstanding of the mysterious universe above, around, beneth, and within us.

Bryson's done it again. His witty and informative travelogue series has provided hours of entertainment.

A Short History... is defintely a departure from his typical format and that had me a little curious about how he would address these issues. As a working scientist and academic I was quite pleased with his handling of the material. It's a nicely written history of science enlivened quite nicely, thank you very much, with Bill's typical flair for a fine phrase.

As another reviewer pointed out, Bryson is undoubtedly the best narrator for his own work. He is a prime example of a man who knows his own words and delivers them phenomenally well!

This was one of the most enjoyable books I have ever 'read'. I am an avid reader of science and other non-fiction books and I would place this one at or very near the top. Rather than stopping short at explaining the scientific principles, experiments, discoverers, dates etc, Bryson repeatedly puts it all into context to illustrate what an amazing and impossible world we live in. I realize that this isn't by any means a new approach, but he manages to do it in a very entertaining and engaging way. His voice and delivery are perfect for the task -- so much so that I'm not sure if I even would have enjoyed the written text as much on its own. Many stories that I have heard a hundred times (like Einstein's writings on relativity) I became much more exciting as narrated by Bryson. He also covers topics that are rarely covered in other popular science books, and makes you wonder how such interesting topics could be so universally neglected. I can't recommend this book strongly enough. Though I would say that I found the first couple of chapters less interesting than the remainder.